Thank you, Mr. Chair, and thank you to the witnesses for being here.
Mr. Chair, my friend Mr. Simms pointed out that the fixed-wing SAR program is still ongoing. I'll point out that the Sea King replacement is also still ongoing, 17 years and half a billion dollars later.
My first question, though, is to the Minister of National Defence. It was brought up that somehow our sovereignty would be compromised if we had support activity going on outside of Canada. I think that was a suggestion by Mr. LeBlanc. Maintenance of the CF-18, of course, has been done outside of Canada and in Canada. Maintenance of the C-17 is a cooperative effort. Maintenance of the C-130J is a cooperative effort.
We operate with allies when we're in those kinds of programs. Could you comment briefly, Minister, on the fact that there is no threat to sovereignty if we're operating with allies in supporting programs like the F-35?